I have 9 days from today to put the SS "band-aid" stripes on a car and it's accessories.
If it makes a difference, I want this information from a 1971 model year Chevrolet Chevelle SS car.
I need the following dimensions (cm or inches or both, I'm not particular):
1. Width of wide stripes?
2. Width of narrow stripes?
3. Width of space between wide and narrow stripes?
4. Width of space between wide stripes?
5. If there is a difference in measurements between the wide stripes from the front to the rear of the hood or trunk, what is the difference measurement?

I need this info as soon as possible and cannot start the project until tomorrow when I have to make room in the other shop to remove the hood and trunk lid to do this work.
I have to temporarily store four garden tractors while I do this work and want to get it done right the first time, while doing it as quickly as possible.
Send this information to me at my personal e-mail n3yvg@westpa.net if you have it.

I will have to do some conversions there but from what I see, and from what I have heard of before they co-incide.
I had no idea that they changed the dimensions at all so this is new stuff to me and makes some amount of a difference.
I may lay out some tape to see what the differences are and go with the one that LOOKS the best.
Mention was made of stencil kits in the threads in those other links, BUT, those are not an option as I am not painting them on that year or type of car.
I know there only ONE reliable source of the exacting dimensions for my individual model and year car, but he is VERY difficult to get ahold of at best.
I have only heard from him one time in the last 6 months.

is this car going to be judged or scrutinized that harshly? i mean can you really tell the difference between .30 and .25 ( 1/4" fine line tape) for the pinstripe and space between the pinstripe? can you just round the numbers up or down to get really close just to make things alittle easier on yourself?

The car was just judged by a group of old rodders at the last show and didn't make the grade at that particular show as my competition was well above my level at this point.

I am not able to find the exact measurements for my car as they were NEVER offered in 1981, and my only reliable source of the 1980 (the only year the SS "band-aid" stripes were put on a 6th generation Chevelle/Malibu) is on the other side of a server shutdown due to problems with the website owner and the server owner. I did happen to find some of his recent pics.
I have found very little reliable information on the 1980 Chevrolet Malibu M80 except that it was a dealer option that was not factory installed, but fell under factory warranty guidelines.
The M80 was only offered in White, with either a Black interior and stripes, or Dark-Blue interior and stripes.
The M80 included the wrap-around front air-dam from the 1979 El Camino SS, and a flush mounted spoiler on the trunk that overlapped down the rear portion of the trunk and stood about 1/8 inch above the filler panels at the rear corners, from my searches on the internet this spoiler was not offered on any other GM car.
The air-dam and spoiler were also painted with the band-aid stripes to match with the rest of the body. Contrary to the older Chevelle stripes, the M80 stripes were painted on the air-dam, filler panel between the bumber and grille, header panel between the grille and hood, the hood, the rear deck panel between the rear window and trunk, the trunk, the spoiler, and the filler panel between the taillights and rear bumper.

The Chevelle and Malibu generations are:
64-65/66-67/68-69/70-72/73-77/78-83
My 1981 Malibu shares few body panels with the 78, 79 and 80, and only a few more with the 82, and 83.

I removed the hood, trunklid, grille, and air cleaner to paint it more evenly as I would like it to look more "new" than it's 24 years of use.

I also have the hood, trunklid, spoiler and air dam ready to be prepped in my carport (as my garage is now permanent storage for the Malibu without some of it's body parts).

I have no choice but to fully sand the hood and re-shoot the yellow, however I have decided to shoot the yellow after the black and only having to mask for the yellow, especially since I have 7 different body panels that have to be masked off for the stripes in black. I have a few minor areas that need shot with the yellow, but are impossible to remove from the car to accomplish and the wife said she would help me out by masking those areas for me.

This whole paint project was funded by my wife for my father's day present from her and the kids.

I have rethought that, and have no real need to paint the whole top of either panel black except for the stripes.

The masking has been laid for the header panel and filler panel on the front of the car.

I will go back out after this shoprt break to mask off the rear filler panel and snap some pictures.

I AM however having major problems getting the filler panel off the car, this panel fits between the front of the trunk lid and the rear window trim, Which I have found that I no longer have any trim tools to properly remove the rear window trim.

I knew I would have to redo the trunk lid to rear window panel, and here is exactly why:

Here is the differences of the panel alignment on the front of the car.

I also knew I should have found the center of each panel BEFORE removing them, but getting the job done without "measuring twice and cutting once" has given me something else to look forward to. At least I found out the paint mixture with only wasting out a pint, which was realistically put into a base coat on both panels.

I can more easily redo the header panel, and the trunk to rear window panel with only a couple hours work, I was more in a hurry to really see what it would look like though so I didn't put the effort into either of those in the first place. I will just mask off from the hood and trunk to get those others to correctly line up like they should.

I was told the color was GM#56 1975 Corvette Bright Yellow, HA!!!
I went back and took a painted piece with me and re-ordered this paint, but had the guy mix as much Bright Yellow pigment into the mix as he could- and ended up after an hour and a half also buying the gallon of Bright Yellow to mix as I needed.

I ended up using the heavily mixed #56: in a mixture of 5 parts Bright Yellow pigment, 3 parts #56, 4 parts thinner, & 1 part hardener. On the first try I got it to where it was almost exact to 4 different pairs of eyes besides mine.

I got my first compliment on the car, and actually baffled the guy. I went into town to fill the gas tank for tomorrow's trip and show, and this guy at the pump across from me comes over to where I had happened to meet up with my sister (who admitted didn't recognize the car at all), he asked what year the "Chevelle" was.
I was happy to hear that after painstakingly trying to incorporate the "look" of the 1971 Chevelle into my 1981 Malibu. He was also surprised at the condition of the car for being an '81. We'll see what the critics at the car show tomorrow have to offer for advice.

The car is FAR from being finished. I have only begun to make changes.

oh man , sorry that happened to ya. it's tough when you're doing any kind of paintjob like that where the sceme continues onto several panels. everything has to be lined up exactly where needs to be before any kind of masking is done. and it has to stay there after the painting is done. if any adjustments need to be done after paint , well you're kinda screwed. on the back it looks like you used two different size tapes to mask your lines and that's where you went wrong? anyways , nice job overall. we learn from our mistakes. i'm sure the next time you do it , it will be perfect

I was going on 30 hours no sleep when I posted the last one, and have to still get things ready for this mornings trip for the car show (I will take some pics) and I will have enough time to re-mask and shoot the corrections needed for the rear filler panel.

I deliberately shot it with only one coat on each panel that needs corrected, so it won't take much sanding to take the mistakes down to correct them.

Quote:

on the back it looks like you used two different size tapes to mask your lines and that's where you went wrong?

I had originally only wanted to see what the spacing would look like on the rear window to trunk panel, and was almost immediately disappointed with them. everything else was measured differently and the stripe spacing went down from ½-inch to the ¼-inch you see on the trunk lid and hood.

At least the corrections will only take two days at the most, you can see from the shine on the trunk that I took way more time with it, and the hood is exactly the same. I also have to measure and mask the air-dam and rear spoiler, but I will mount the spoiler and apply tape from the bottom side up to meet in the middle.

I will have the wife eye-it-up while I apply the tape over the top of the spoiler, the air-dam is far enough from any other stripes to notice a slight "off" in the measurement but I will measure as close as possible while having it mounted under the front bumper first along with help from the second set of eyes.

What gets me is how I got the stripes on the rear window panel different sizes?

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